Andrea del Castagno  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 14:12, 16 July 2009
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

← Previous diff		 Current revision
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

Line 1: Line 1:
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-The [[ageless]] '''Cumaean Sibyl''' was the priestess presiding over the [[Apollo]]nian [[oracle]] at [[Cumae]], a [[Greek colony]] located near [[Naples]], [[Italy]]. 
-The word ''[[Sibyl (oracle)|sibyl]]'' comes (via [[Latin]]) from the [[ancient Greek]] word ''sibylla'', meaning [[prophet]]ess. There were eventually many Sibyls in the ancient world, but because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of [[Ancient Rome|early Rome]] codified in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' VI, she became the most famous among Romans, supplanting the [[Erythraean Sibyl]] famed among Greeks.+'''Andrea del Castagno''' or '''Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla''' (c. 1421 – 1457) was an [[Italy|Italian]] painter from [[Florence]], influenced chiefly by [[Tommaso Masaccio]] and [[Giotto di Bondone]]. His works include frescoes in [[Sant'Apollonia]] in Florence and the painted equestrian monument of [[Niccolò da Tolentino]] (1456) in the [[Santa Maria del Fiore|Cathedral in Florence]].. He in turn influenced the Ferrarese school of [[Cosmè Tura]], [[Francesco del Cossa]] and [[Ercole de' Roberti]].
- +
-She is one of the four sibyls painted by [[Raphael]] at [[Santa Maria della Pace]] (see gallery below.) She was also painted by [[Andrea del Castagno]] (''[[Uffizi Gallery]], illustration right''), and in the Sistine Ceiling of [[Michelangelo]] her powerful presence overshadows every other Sibyl, even her younger and more beautiful sisters, such as the [[Delphic Sibyl]]. +
- +
-There are various names for the Cumaean Sibyl besides the "Herophile" of Pausanias and Lactantius or the ''Aeneid'''s "Deiphobe, daughter of [[Glaucus]]": "Amaltheia", "Demophile" or "Taraxandra" are all offered in various references. +
- +
-==The cave at Cumae==+
- +
-The famous cave known as the “Antro della Sibilla” was discovered by [[Amedeo Maiuri]] in 1932, the identification of which he based on the description by Virgil in the 6th book of the Aeneid, and also from the description by an anonymous author known as pseudo-Justin.( Verg. Aen. 6. 45-99; Ps-Justin, 37). The cave is a trapezoidal passage over 131 m long, running parallel to the side of the hill and cut out of the volcanic tuff stone. An innermost chamber, where the Sibyl was thought to have prophesied, has later been identified as an early Christian burial chamber from the 4th or 5th century AD (M. Napoli 1965, 105).+
- +
-A nearby tunnel through the acropolis now known as the "Crypta Romana" (part of [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]] and [[Augustus|Octavian]]'s defenses in the war against [[Sextus Pompey]]) was previously identified as the Grotto of the Sibyl.+
- +
-==Ancient Roman prophecies==+
-The story of the acquisition of the [[Sibylline Books]] by [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]], the semi-legendary last king of the [[Roman Kingdom]], or [[Tarquinius Priscus]], is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history.+
- +
-Centuries ago, concurrent with the 50th [[Olympiad]] not long before the expulsion of Rome's kings, an old woman "who was not a native of the country" (Dionysius) arrived [[wiktionary:incognito|incognita]] in Rome. She offered nine books of prophecies to King Tarquin; and as the king declined to purchase them, owing to the exorbitant price she demanded, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquin at the same stiff price, which he again refused, whereupon she burned three more and repeated her offer. Tarquin then relented and purchased the last three at the full original price, whereupon she "disappeared from among men" (Dionysius). <!--what version?:Another version has the price doubling each time.--> +
- +
-The books were thereafter kept in the [[Temple of Jupiter (Capitoline Hill)|Temple of Jupiter]] on the [[Capitoline Hill]], Rome, to be consulted only in emergencies. The temple burned down in the 80s BC, and the books with it, necessitating a re-collection of Sibylline prophecies from all parts of the empire (Tacitus 6.12). These were carefully sorted and those determined to be legitimate were saved in the rebuilt temple. The Emperor Augustus had them moved to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, where they remained for most of the remaining Imperial Period. +
- +
-The Books were burned in AD 405 by the General [[Flavius Stilicho]], who was a Christian and regarded the books as Pagan and therefore "evil". At the time of the Visigothic invasion five years later in AD 410, certain Pagan apologists bemoaned the loss of the books, claiming that the invasion of the city was evidence of the wrath of the Pagan gods over the destruction of the books.+
- +
-==Medieval Christianity==+
-In the [[Middle Ages]], both the Cumaean Sibyl and Virgil were considered prophets of the birth of [[Christ]], because the fourth of Virgil's ''[[Eclogues]]'' appears to contain a [[Messianic prophecy]] by the Sibyl, and this was seized on by early [[Christian]]s as such—one reason why [[Dante Alighieri]] later chose Virgil as his guide through the underworld in ''[[The Divine Comedy]]''. Similarly, Michelangelo prominently featured the Cumaean Sibyl in the [[Sistine Chapel]] among the [[Old Testament]] prophets, as had earlier works such as the [[Tree of Jesse]] miniature in the Ingeberg [[Psalter]] (c. 1210).+
- +
-Virgil may have been influenced by Hebrew texts; according to, amongst others, [[Tacitus]].+
- +
-[[Constantine I (emperor)|Constantine]], the Christian emperor, in his first address to the assembly, interpreted the whole of ''The Eclogues'' as a reference to the coming of Christ and quoted a long passage of the [[Sybilline Oracles]] (''Book 8'') containing an [[wiktionary:acrostic|acrostic]] in which the initials from a series of verses read: Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross.+
- +
-==Literature==+
-The Cumaean Sibyl is featured in the works of, among others, Virgil (''The Eclogues'', ''The Æneid''), [[Ovid]] (''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'') and [[Petronius]] (''The [[Satyricon]]''). The [[epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] to [[T. S. Eliot]]'s [[poem]] "[[The Waste Land]]" is a quote from the ''Satyricon'' where [[Trimalchio]] states, "For I myself once saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a cage, and when the boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she answered 'I want to die.'".+
- +
-[[Geoffrey Hill]]'s Poem "After Cumae" in ''[[For the Unfallen]]'' refers to the Sibyl's 'mouthy cave'. [[Robert Graves]] fashioned a poetic prophesy by the Sibyl to bind the story together in his work of historical fiction, ''[[I, Claudius]].+
- +
-Christians were especially impressed with the Cumaean Sibyl, for in Virgil's Fourth [[Eclogues|Eclogue]] she foretells the coming of a savior - possibly a flattering reference to the poet's patron - whom Christians identified as Jesus.+
- +
-===Stories recounted in Virgil's ''Æneid''===+
-The Cumaean Sibyl prophesied by “singing the fates” and writing on [[oak]] leaves. These would be arranged inside the entrance of her cave but, if the wind blew and scattered them, she would not help to reassemble the leaves to form the original prophesy again.+
- +
-The Sibyl was a guide to the underworld ([[Hades]]), its entry being at the nearby [[volcanic crater|crater]] of [[Avernus]]. [[Aeneas]] employed her services before his descent to the [[lower world]] to visit his dead father [[Anchises]], but she warned him that it was no light undertaking:+
-:Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.+
-:All night long, all day, the doors of Hades stand open.+
-:But to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven,+
-:That is labour indeed. (''Aeneid'' 6.10.)+
- +
-===Stories recounted in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''===+
-Although she was a mortal, the Sibyl lived about a thousand years. This came about when [[Apollo]] offered to grant her a wish in exchange for her virginity; she took a handful of sand and asked to live for as many years as the grains of sand she held. Later, after she refused the god's love, he allowed her body to wither away because she failed to ask for [[eternal youth]]. Her body grew smaller with age and eventually was kept in a jar (''ampulla''). Eventually only her voice was left (''Metamorphoses'' 14; compare the myth of [[Tithonus]]).+
- +
-== Primary sources ==+
-<!--as reports on the contents of these mentions are incorporated into text and notes, it would help to remove them from this list-->+
-*Virgil, ''Aeneis vi.268 ff''+
-*Isidore, ''Etymologiae viii.8.5''+
-*Servius, ''In Aeneida vi.72, 321''+
-*Lactantius, ''Divinae institutiones i.6.10-11''+
-*Solinus, ''Collectanea rerum memorabilium ii.16, 17, 18''+
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Current revision

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop

Featured:

Andrea del Castagno or Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla (c. 1421 – 1457) was an Italian painter from Florence, influenced chiefly by Tommaso Masaccio and Giotto di Bondone. His works include frescoes in Sant'Apollonia in Florence and the painted equestrian monument of Niccolò da Tolentino (1456) in the Cathedral in Florence.. He in turn influenced the Ferrarese school of Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti.


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Andrea del Castagno" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Retrieved from "http://artandpopularculture.com/Andrea_del_Castagno"
Personal tools
Metas